April 20 - Willow Park (Ft Worth) to Plano (Northeast Dallas)

64.84 miles in 5:57...ascent...1368 ft....
I woke up to soaking wet roads after hearing the torrential rains while I slept. I have been very lucky, avoiding all this rain that is falling all around me. It rained and flooded in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for a week before I got here. It is raining and flooding now where I was a few days ago. There is more rain forecast tonight, but the worst will be to my west. Hopefully it won't be so bad to the Northeast.
Pam and I were here last fall, at the TCU football game, and my first 15 miles or so were on the exact path I took when I rode from the Rv park to campus. I went through west Ft Worth to the Trinity River bike trail. The Trinity River is a major waterway running through the area. Last fall it was running at a normal level, and my course took me across a low water dam. Good thing I didn't need to cross in the same place this time, because the river was blowing over the top of all the low water dams. I followed the Trinity trail right past, and close to downtown Ft Worth. While on the trail, I stopped at a bike shop to have my tire pressure checked. It felt okay to my hand checks, but actually both tires were way down, which really makes a difference in how well the tires roll. And I thought my legs were tired from the rolling hills!!!!!!! I should have known !!!!!!. Anyhow, things got much better after filling up from 30 lbs psi to 80 in both tires. The POP was back in my legs. The thing that was slowing me down today was the water, standing, and flowing, on the trails. Where there is water, there is also mud. Slippery mud I could slide or sink in. I rode slow every time I came to it, which was often. In a very stupid moment, I did go down. The front tire just slipped out on a curve.I got muddy and a little bloody, but the thing that bothered me, is that should NEVER happen to me. I'm smarter than that. Damn it.
The Trinity trail dropped me off in the suburb of Holtom City, where I did some residential riding, and very little in busy roads. I rode past the DFW property, and airplanes were buzzing pretty close. Then it was in to the Cotton Belt Trail, a very nice, concrete trail, through affluent suburbs in the Carrolton/ Grapevine area. The mud wasn't so bad on this trail, but there was standing water. For all the nice bike trails in the area, there are no bike lanes on the roads, and traffic was picking up by the time I rode through the next, more business oriented suburb.
I was on and off of two more nice bike trails as I got near the final destination. There was even a small stretch where I was on Interstate 35 frontage road, that was as busy as the interstate. It was a little hairy there! By the time I got onto Plano Blvd, I was doing alot of sidewalk riding because of traffic. I got to the Motel 6, and got the LAST room available, a room with a handicapped bathroom, but I took it. The evening ended with a stroll across the street to an IHOP for breakfast for supper!

Heading into some urban riding for the first time since El Paso

All the rivers and creeks are rolling!

I'm in Cowtown!

The Trinity River

This is the low water dam I went across last fall.  Notice the bike trail going up on the other side

The bike shop that made my legs feel better!

If you look at the grass, you can see how high the river was yesterday

Art along the Trinity River trail

The Trinity trail along the river, near downtown Ft. Worth

Pretty nice homes along the trails.  Downtown Ft. Worth is a pretty affluent area

As I neared Ft. Worth, along the river

Sculpture along the trail, in a city park

Downtown Ft. Worth

Water running across my road!

Skinniest damn cow I ever saw!

I was rockin the WVU jersey in TCU country!

I-35 where I had to ride for a little stretch

The news, talking about the Brazos River, which I crossed yesterday.  Roads are closed today!

April 19 -Breckenridge Texas to Willow Park (west Ft Worth)

April 19....82.06 miles in 7:43....(1033.73 miles in 14 days....average daily mileage is 73.8/day) ascent....2310 ft....(20,015 ft for entire trip )
After today, it occurred to me that I have to get my hill climbing legs back. All the riding I've done in Phoenix and last summer in the outer banks was flatland riding, with the exception of a few rides over Usery Pass in Mesa. My legs were tired today. The terrain has been all rollers since I descended off of the cap rock in Lamesa, TX three days ago.
I want to mention that I am still on US 180, which I have been since El Paso ( even though US 62 split to the north in Seminole TX)  When I woke up this morning the roads were wet, and there was fog, the kind that sticks to you and makes you wet. I wore my shoe covers to keep my feet dry. But it was nice that it was 63 when I left, not 53 like yesterday. I rolled through the town of Breckenridge, which has the town square with the courthouse in the middle, just like all the town's around here, and north of here  ( the way I rode last year I noticed the same thing). East of Breckenridge was totally different than west of town. The hills were alive with all kinds of trees, especially cedar trees. The mesquite trees were even full grown. Yesterday there were no trees besides smaller ( struggling???) mesquites. It was beginning to look like eastern states now, not the desert southwest ( except for the prickly pear that were mixed in. Today's trip was pretty much all forest, with only patches of farmland and ranches. I also saw three dead pigs, or wild boars, or whatever they were. There were a different type of buzzard with white patches on the wings munching down on them. I crossed the Brazos River again, and this time it was much higher, almost out of its banks. The closer I get to Dallas, the more rain they've had.
40 miles into the trip, I came to the town of Mineral Wells. It's a town of 16000 that had its heyday in the last century, with the mineral springs drawing the rich and famous. Now there is a deteriorated 400 room hotel in the middle of town that really looks out of place. I stopped there and ate at a Subway, then got back in the road. Another option was the Mineral Wells trail, which would have taken me the 20 miles into Weatherford without the rollers, because it's a rail to trail, but it was closed because the heavy rains probably made it like riding through quicksand.
When I got to Weatherford, I got off the 180, and road some nice trails and back roads to my motel, which was right on I 20, west of Ft. Worth, very near where Pam and I stayed when we came to see TCU play WVU in football last fall. The back road included the historic Bankhead Highway, which was one of the original transcontinental highways, running from Washington DC to San Diego. I had been seeing a lot of it running along 180, but didn't know the significance until I saw the historic signage near town.  I saw some real nice horse ranches and barns on that last stretch, reminding me of Lexington Kentucky, even. But remember, Ft Worth is a pretty wealthy animal town itself, even though it's called Cowtown.

Pam's Cafe on the corner of the main street and Rose Ave in Breckenridge

A ghost bike near the Brazos River

Mineral Wells is home of an Army helicopter training base

The Baker Motel in Mineral Wells

Blooming weeds along the road added some color to a gloomy day

County courthouse in Weatherford, TX

April 18 Anson TX to Breckenridge, TX

59.67 miles in 5:32...(951.67 total for the trip, averaging 73.2 miles per day for 13 days.....ascent 1109 ft....total for trip is 17,705 ft.
I wasn't in a hurry to get out there today because of the weather.... Drizzly, north wind, about 49 degrees, zero sun....like riding in the fog. The temp didn't touch 60 until very late in the ride. It never rained, but always had drizzle or just a cold chill in my bones. No sun, didn't even lighten up once all day.
Blah weather, blah scenery, blah effort on my part. Very little along this stretch got my attention. Lots of prickly pear, mesquite trees and field grass. Lots of rolling hills with water in every stream because of the 3.64 inches of rain that recently fell. Many small ponds and lakes dotted the landscape. Frogs were constantly croaking. I almost ran over a dead one that was the size of a squirrel. I was serenaded by a pack of yelping coyotes out there somewhere.
About two thirds of the way into the ride, I passed through the little upscale tourist town of Albany. I chose not to eat in the fancy restaurants there, so when I stopped for a short time, I ate a clif bar, added my long pants and my waterproof boots over my sandals. Riding for over three hours in shorts and sandals was really chilling me down. The temp was supposed to go to 68, but at that point it was still about 54. That about sums up the day.
The only other two  things of note was crossing the rain swollen Brazos River about halfway, and Hubbard Creek Lake near Breckenridge. I crossed about a half mile long bridge over a lake that looks like it us quite a recreation spot for the Ft . Worth area, but today it was very muddy ( red mud, like most of the creeks), and higher than usual. 

A railroad car marked an old railroad for loading cattle at an historic marker, but there was not any other signs of a railroad for the entire trip 

A big longhorn skull in Albany, TX

This is as Tex Mex as I'll go at Ernie's Spanish Restaurant!

April 17 Snyder, TX to Anson, TX

60.41 miles in 5:19...April 16,2016...(892 miles for the trip in 12 days, averaging 74.4 miles a day)....ascent.... 823 ft (16596 ft for trip)...
I didn't wake up until 9:15, the roads were dry, but more rain was in the forecast, so I had to roll. I thought I was going to get buffeted by north winds from 10 to 20, but they weren't really that terrible. There was a major cloud cover all day, and it only got above 60 for about an hour. The entire was a tale of three counties. I started in Scurry County, with it's new, ( read bone rattling) chip seal, into Fisher County, with its baby butt smooth roads, where I made much better time for 30 miles, to Jones County, where there was old chip seal, that I am just going to have to deal with in Texas. I stopped about halfway to eat in a town called Roby, since really didn't have a supper last night, and that was a highlight on a pretty blah day. After a big ride yesterday, my legs weren't exactly fuel injected, but they weren't bad either. Farmland mixed with scrub land, and it was all very misty and overcast after I stopped in Roby. I probably rode the last 15 miles in a light rain, but never really got soaked. I got in at about 4:30, ate at a dairy Queen, and just chilled out, while the drizzle just continued into the night

Flooded fields were everywhere after last night's storm

I'm in longhorn country!

April 16 Hobbs, NM to Snyder, Texas

132.77 miles in 10:42....ascent . ..1227 ft.....
I cannot remember things changing so much in one day, from beginning to end, and it all had to do with the 'dry line,' which is a meteorological term that I had never of before a few days ago. Allow me to start at the beginning.
I realize now that the beautiful town of Hobbs, with its trees and lawns that don't naturally exist, is the end of the desert, and the beginning of a very fertile area. Five miles out of town on US 62/180, I crossed the New Mexico/Texas line for the third and final time. (Figure that out if ur a geography whiz)  The farm land went as far as I could see. The sun was out, the tailwind was pushing me, and everything was great. I rode 23 miles in the first hour and a half, and was on course for a sub seven hour century. That's when I began to think.....about blowing through my planned stop after 70 miles in Lamesa, and heading to my next days stop in Snyder, therefore, getting a day ahead, and saving a night's motel fees, and so on.
I stopped and talked to a guy in Lamesa about what the next 60 miles to Snyder might be like, at a quick lunch at subway, and I was off for day two's ride.
I rode out of Lamesa under great conditions, and if I just kept my pace, I would be in Snyder before dark.
The first 18 miles out if town were through plowed, but unplanted cotton and peanut fields. There was a huge wind farm, with more windmills than I could count, all throughout the plowed fields, and interspersed between the windmills were oil pumps and wells. Talk about working the land.... I noticed dozens of snakes on the road, different sizes and types, dead and alive throughout the area.
At the 88 mile mark of my ride, things began to rapidly change.
I came to the end of the mesa I have been on for who knows how long, and there was about a 300 ft descent. ( right then and there I figured out why the town was called Lamesa). I also figured out that all those windmills lined the edge of the drop off, where the wind was strongest. As I descended the farmland disappeared, and I was suddenly in a land of seriously rolling scrubland. The wind changed from a tailwind to a headwind, and the sunny sky became laden with clouds. Hence, the dry line that I spoke of earlier. The hot, dry desert air blowing out of the deserts of the southwest, clashes with the moist, humid, cool, Gulf air, and crazy storms blow up suddenly. This is currently happening from Mexico to way up north, and record storms are resulting. Needless to say, with the wind change, and the rolling hills, my progress slowed down. Then, possibly worst of all, I went into Scurry County. Scurry County just recently put new chip seal on their roads. If you have read my blog from our first trip through Texas, you heard me rant about Texas chip seal. I'm not gonna do that again but it sucks. It slows a bike down 1-3 miles an hour, and rattles me and my bike so bad that I can't even see out of my rear view mirror because it bounces so badly. And remember, I've already ridden 88 miles, but the last 46 to Snyder were gonna get ugly. As I rode through this wasteland, I hit my century in 7:15, but I could have been a half hour faster.
I came to a town called Gail, and that was my point of no return. The clouds were turning darker, the wind picking up, but there was no place to stay but in my tent, in a park. I figured it may rain all night, so I decided to press on the final 30 miles.
As i rode, the rain clouds continued to grow, and get darker. Then the cloud to cloud lightning, then my phone alert went off with a tornado watch, then the cloud to ground lightning. Not only was I getting closer to it, it was getting closer to me. It was getting so dark, that as the lightning lit the sky, I was watching for funnel clouds. The wind was whaling, and I was on ¥€®℅ing chip seal! The rain began, and the wind suddenly got so strong I thought things were going to blow off my bike. It was a waste land, no buildings, no protection, so my only choice to get out of this was a culvert that ran under the road. I stopped, ran the bike down into a ditch, only to find the culvert had a metal grate, so I couldn't get into it. On the other side of the road, the grate was high enough that I could crawl under, which I did, only to find a rattlesnake. A dead one fortunately. I sat there for a while, water beginning to run into the culvert, wondering what was next, when the rain lightened up. Then it stopped.....like that! Very quickly. I crawled out into the open just as a sheriff was riding by. He saw me and stopped. We talked, checked radar, and the storm was moving very rapidly to the Northeast. I was good for now, but another storm was coming. He was going to evacuate people off a lake, so I was on my own.
I got back on the bike, and the lightning show was nonstop, rivaling even those on the outer banks, maybe better. Every time the sky lit up, I kept checking for that funnel cloud, but it never came. I kept pounding into the headwind, over the chip seal, painfully, slowly nearing Snyder. The rain became heavier as I got near town, and about five miles from town, the sheets of torrential rain hit, along with the wind, so I pulled into a farmer's garage for about an hour, and watched the flooding begin. The field filled up, and the dry garage took on about an inch if water. I had some leftover vanilla wafers for supper while I waited this one out. When it did slow down, I was back on the bike, at 930 at night, heading into town. The roads of the town were flooded, and the farmers fields were reflecting like lakes in the lightning. I finally got to a motel at about 10:30 and amazingly, everything of critical importance stayed dry. Great job panniers!!!
After all that, I realized that there is no way, at my age, I could feel more alive, than crawling into a ditch in Texas during a super cell storm. Bring it on!!!!

Tex Mex DQ??????

Leaving New Mexico for the second time!

Plowed fields for as far as you can see near Lamesa, TX

Farming wind, cotton and oil on the same land!

Texas chip seal!

Rolling scrub land near Gail, TX

So that's what they call it!  Texured!

My bike couldn't fit into the culvert during the storm

A view from the culvert I spent some time in during the storm

April 17 - Pam's Trip

So this is my final post for the trip, but Mike's post will keep on going for quite awhile!  I traveled from Greenfield, IN (just east of Indianapolis) to Claysville, PA, which will be my home base for the summer.  I have to say, Indiana wins the award for the WORST roads!  From Indianapolis to the border of Ohio, I dodged (and hit) more potholes and had rougher roads than Pennsylvania ever had!  Fortunately, it was uneventful trip, with reasonable traffic (it's Sunday traffic) all the way home.  I did notice that the dogwood and redbud trees and the popping out of leaves that I saw in Missouri and Illinois are not present in Ohio and Pennsylvania!  Guess spring is slow to arrive here!
One surprise that I had right before I entered Columbus was that I passed Bounder towing a car and they both had New York plates!  Turns out it was the manager from my CalAm cafe that I worked at this winter!  Talk about a small world !
So for now, this is Pam signing off!

My campsite!  This is property that we own in Claysville and it's our go to place to park

April 16 - Pam's trip

Eureka, Missouri to Greenfield, Indiana
Even though it's Saturday, I still wanted to a relatively early start in hopes that traffic wouldn't be too bad going through St Louis.  While I was doing my final check around the rig, the man from across the road came up to me and commented on the Slippery Rock University license plate on the front.  As it turns out, he was born and raised in Slippery Rock, his dad was a professor at SRU and he also graduated from SRU.  Talk about a small world!
Traffic heading into St Louis wasn't TOO bad (still had a lot of cars), but the roads were terrible (thought I was going to shake apart) and there was construction the whole way, which shut down lanes and made life interesting!  I passed right by the famous arch (sorry no pictures on this trip!  Too crazy) and then over the mighty Mississippi I went!  And the roads didn't get better!  It did make for interesting opening of cabinets later in the day!  The Illinois roads seemed to get better, and the flowering trees continued!  The scenery was mostly huge farms, and less rolling hills (like yesterday).  Once I got away from St Louis, the traffic spread out and all was good until I got close to Indianapolis.  Lots of lanes, with lots of vehicles, with terribly rough roads.  Fortunately, I got through the town with little hassle and only 20 miles to drive to my final campground.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will be back in Claysville.